Bald Eagle: The King James Version of the Bible, although published in the 16th Century, is written in 15th Century English - the language of Tyndale and Coverdale. It is no longer idiomatic. And Bless-ed is just how it is normally read in Church.

Let me ask this, Bald Eagle: If you were writing a novel, would you write "blest," or "blessed"? How about a business letter? Or a newspaper column.

I think anyone who reads the lyrics of "Shepherds Arise" can tell that it is not pronounced "bless-ed," because with that pronunciation it wouldn't scan. So the only point of writing "blest" would be to preserve the text exactly as it appears in the songbook. Well, as noted above, Stan Hugill's songbook also says, "Hooraw, me Yeller Gals, doodle let me go," and Mudcat faithfully preserves that spelling. Stuff like that makes it hard as hell to find things on Mudcat. And people's inability to find lyrics on DT (or in the forum) is a problem often subject to comment here. So I respectfully submit that this consideration should outweigh any imagined need to preserve quaint usages.

O.k.?